Playlist: The Promised Land's Portfolio
Featured
Nalini Nadkarni
From American Public Media | Part of the The Promised Land series | 54:00
Pioneering researcher and "queen of the forest canopy" Nalini Nadkarni, shows host Majora Carter the wonders of the Olympic rain forest — from the treetops! And the two visit a correctional facility where Nadkarni’s innovative Moss Project employs a team of prisoners turned botanists.
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- Nalini Nadkarni
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- American Public Media
Brenda Palms Barber
From American Public Media | Part of the The Promised Land series | 54:00
Brenda Palms Barber is driven by a certainty that "people deserve second chances and you can choose to turn your life around." Brenda started a transitional jobs program for ex-convicts that teaches life skills through beekeeping. She takes host Majora Carter through the streets of Chicago, past churches and crack houses, to check out the beehives and chat with ex-offenders who are now the core workforce of this nonprofit enterprise.
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- Brenda Palms Barber
- From
- American Public Media
Brenda Palms Barber wasn’t always drawn to beekeeping. But her quest to find work for residents of Chicago’s economically disadvantaged North Lawndale neighborhood — where some 50 percent of adults have been in the criminal justice system — led her to start Sweet Beginnings, a transitional jobs program for formerly incarcerated individuals and others with significant barriers to employment. And the recidivism rate for former Sweet Beginnings employees is below 4 percent, compared to the Illinois average of 55 percent and a national average of 65 percent. For Brenda and her team, transforming street skills into mainstream competitive skills is a sweet success indeed.
Host Majora Carter tours Sweet Beginnings’ honey factory, inspects the beehives, and chats with ex-offenders who are now the core workforce of this nonprofit enterprise. Sweet Beginnings’ Beeline products — raw honey and honey-based body care products — are now sold throughout the Midwest.